Canton Island

In Kiribati, China has used President Xi Jinping’s One Belt, One Road development initiative to conclude an agreement with the government there to expand the runway at Canton Island.

After leaving Honolulu, the Pacific Clipper headed for Canton Island, a refueling stop almost 2,000 miles southwest of Hawaii.

As a young radioman aboard an amphibious scouting plane, Boutte was the flyer who spotted Rickenbacker and two companions on a life raft in the Pacific, three weeks after the ditching of their plane on a flight from Hawaii to Canton Island.

By last week 13,000 persons manned the PMR outposts, from Elmendorf A.F.B. in Alaska to faraway Canton Island, more than 4,000 miles from California.

I subsequently found that Canton Island was nine miles long and 500 yards at the widest.